April 07, 2011

The probability distribution for the 2dx die rolling approach of Gaia Gamma by now should be well known. Here is once more the table for it:

My solution approach #2 for handling difficulty modifiers is actually inspired (kind of) by The Fantasy Trip (or their forebears Melee and Wizard), originally done by Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games. In these games you by default roll 3d6 for tests. For higher difficulties you roll 4d6 or 5d6.

Taking into account the basic rules I laid out (few dice) I will use a variant of this approach. In Gaia gamma (under solution #2) you roll

3dx-H for easy tasks where the uncertain outcome nonetheless should be determined by chance

3dx-L for hard tasks where the uncertain outcome in any case must be determined by Fate

If you did not read release 1 of the Gaia Gamma rules (sidebar to the left) here's the short summary:

3dx-H means: Roll 3d6, remove the highest die and multiply the other two to get the final score (e.g. 2, 3, 5 make for a score of 6 = 2 times 3).

3dx-L means: Roll 3d6, remove the lowest die and multiply the other two to get the final score (e.g. 2, 3, 5 make for a score of 15 = 3 times 5).